Shinobi Trigger
by psychoman222
Summary: 'Pretending to be a mute would be so much easier if I knew sign language.' Naruto thought, as he gestured wildly. "A bird! No, a cloud!" Naruto facepalmed. "Oh, I got it! Lucca! Hit the Heckran in the head with your hammer!" Sotor-verse.
1. Chapter 1

_**Shinobi Trigger**_

* * *

"Crono!" A woman's voice rings out.

"Time to wake up!"

Truthfully, I was awake before she was. However, the necessity of keeping my cover, I had to pretend to be a 'normal' teenager, who as a general rule, tended to need more sleep than most other age groups.

The curtains opened.

"OH! Crono! When did you get so big?"

I shrugged.

Also, according to my cover story, I was a mute.

"Oh well. Your friend, whatshername, wanted to meet you at the fair! She seems bigger than I remember, too!"

I shape my hands into an L, then a U, followed by two Cs, and lastly an A.

"Oh! That's right! Lucca! Well, you'd best get going if you want to see all the sights!"

Most would find it strange she couldn't remember her "son's" best friend's name, and think less of her for it.

I would feed those people the business end of my bokken.

You see, she has a disorder called Anterograde amnesia. Basically, she can't form new declarative memories, otherwise known as conscious memories. Basically, she could theoretically learn to play a piano, but she could never remember ever having the lessons. She has it better than some, though. Sometimes, she can go a couple of hours, even up to a day before forgetting. Some with the same affliction can't even finish a sentence before forgetting what's going on.

Nevertheless, to her, even though Lucca has been a huge part of her life for the past decade, she can't remember ever meeting her. To her, just yesterday, her son was seven years old.

And alive.

Her _real _son died in the same incident that caused her to develop her memory issues, which is why I feign being mute. People would ask questions if the boy who eyewitnesses saw had a heavily injured throat walking around with no issue whatsoever.

Most would think it cruel that I'm using this poor woman's tragedy against her just so I could have an alibi, and I agree. However, I'm a shinobi. I do what I have to, even if I don't like it.

Also, while I realize I am in no way being objective, and I may be telling myself this to assuage my own guilt, aren't I doing her a favor? Without me, she'd be alone. Lucca, who helps take care of her when not messing around with her own inventions or taking care of her OWN mother, would have never had any reason to meet her if it wasn't for my being here. I take care of chores, and help jog her memory during her worse moments. I'm giving her a chance to have a son back. It is I that kisses her on the cheek every morning. It is I that gives her money to live on. And it's not like she'll ever realize I'm not her son. Aren't I helping her far more than I'm hurting her?

I give her a peck on the cheek, and then pull her into a hug before heading out.

Who am I?

I am Naruto Uzumaki, Sixth Hokage. Victor of the Unification War. Some even took to calling me 'the Hurricane Emperor" before I lost it all, save for a few friends and allies.

But no one here knows that.

To them, I am Crono, dutiful mute son.

If they ever think otherwise, it's because I'm not doing my job right.

And I always do it right.

Even if I hate myself for it.

* * *

**AN:** Yes, yet another Sotor Spinoff. No, I'm not planning to have very many more. Just the prequel, sequel, and the sequel to that sequel to go.

Dammit.

Starting off a bit darker than usual, and hopefully this story will be a bit more action oriented, as our protaganist won't be able to do much diplomacy or trickery, his preferred methods of conflict resolution, being handicapped as he is. But don't worry, I don't plan on this being completely devoid of humor.

_**Psychoman's Encyclopedia aka the Enpsychopedia**_

BOKKEN: Wooden training sword.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Shinobi Trigger**_

_**Chapter 2**_

I proceeded towards the fair, more out of obligation than any expectation of having fun. Things like 'soda' drinking contests, betting on races, and blowing up Lucca's robot Gato for the thousandth time held precisely zero interest for me. My plan was this:

Step 1. Meet up with Lucca.

Step 2. Hang around long enough that no one thinks I'm weird, and thus drawing suspicion.

Step 3. Go home.

This plan was derailed slightly when a girl ran into me at full speed. I managed to keep my footing, while the girl just kind of… bounced off. I sighed as I reached down and helped her up.

"Oww...Thanks.I'm so sorry! Are you okay?"

I nod, and she begins feeling around her collarbone, as if something's missing.

"Uh oh... My pendant! Don't tell me I lost it!?"

I scan the area, and sure enough, there's a glinting object on the ground. I pick it up, and it's a pendant with a blue, slightly luminescent gem. I examine it more closely, and I almost have trouble believing what I'm seeing. It's a Chakra crystal.

Chakra crystals were invented shortly before the Harvest War, and were basically formed from highly condensed chakra. Theoretically, they can occur naturally, and there's a possibility that lightsaber crystals are, in fact, Chakra crystals. They were used to power Fal'Cie, but could also be used to power jutsu.

If the person making it was a Seal Master, they could even scribe seals out of the internal graining, essentially allowing them to 'program' jutsu into it. Most, if not all, of the later Fal'Cie were made in this fashion.

However, the knowledge behind their construction was lost quite some time ago, to all but a select few. And while I will need a jeweler's loupe to be certain, I think this may be a manufactured crystal.

Either this crystal is very old, or there is someone who still knows how to make them. In any case, I will need to investigate.

However, that will have to wait. As just running off with this girl's pendant could cause me quite a few problems, I hand it to her.

"Oh, thank goodness! My pendant! It has a lot of sentimental value! I came to see the Festival! You...live in this town, don't you?"

I nod.

"I feel a little out of place here. Would you mind if I walked around with you for a while?"

Eh, why not. If nothing else, it'll kill time. I nod.

"Oh, by the way, my name is, er... Marle! And you're...?"

Looks like I'm not the only one who has trouble remembering a cover story. Nevertheless, I hand her a business card, which I made for exactly this purpose.

'Marle' takes it and reads it.

"Crono? Pleased to meet you! Now, lead on!"

I decide to take her to Lucca's demonstration. After all, there will be time for the other stuff later.

"Oh, we're going to that science show? Hold on, let's get some candy." Marle says before running off to a booth that is selling candy. She takes a good… let's say, five minutes to decide what she wants. Thankfully, I have been married. Waiting for a woman to get ready for something is nothing new to me.

Having had Kakashi as a sensei doesn't hurt, either.

Marle snaps me out of my 'What the hell am I even doing here' trance, with an jubilant "Alright! I'm done! Let's go!"

At the demonstration, there was a crowd gathered, but I managed to force my way to the front. As I did so, I overheard a muttered "So, how long will this one take to explode?"

As much as I wanted to, I couldn't chastise the man for saying that. Lucca was a brilliant inventor, capable of building a fully functional robot before anyone else knew what electricity was. Unfortunately, things such as 'Circuit Breaker', 'Surge Protector', and 'Emergency Shutoff Switch' were _not_ among her inventions.

Hell, the printing press she made for my business cards caught fire less than a week ago. Whatever this one was, it looked like two platforms, with a bunch of machinery attached and a roof.

"Step right on up, any of you who have the time or the courage! Our 'Super Dimension Warp' is the invention of the century!" Taban, Lucca's father, exclaims. 'Super Dimension Warp?' There is _no _way this will end well.

"Jump up here…" Taban gestures to one of the platforms. "... and you'll get teleported here!" He finishes, gesturing to the opposite pod. "It's the masterwork of my beautiful daughter, Lucca!"

A _teleporter!?_ From what I know about teleporters, this demonstration will end in either a nuclear explosion, a demon invasion, or the test subject involuntarily doing an impromptu public rendition of _The Fly__._

"Where have you been!? No one wants to try the Telepod! How about you?" Lucca shouted at me, finally seeing that I was there.

"It looks like fun! I'll watch while you try it out!" Marle volunteered for me, shoving me forward.

"Don't worry, we tried it on our pets! There's no reason why it shouldn't work as well on humans! So, step right up!" Taban promised.

Wait, they don't have any pets… Oh. _That's_ why I couldn't find my cat this morning. Dammit, Lucca, he's _already_ traumatized from the 'Automatic Air Freshener' incident, don't make it _worse!_

Oh well, it'd be better if something bad happens to _me_ than to innocent bystanders.

I step on the pod, which Taban begins beating on with a hammer.

I can _feel_ the odds of me getting out of this alive dropping.

However, my fears are unfounded, as I reappear on the other side, without me ever noticing I disappeared.

"It...WORKED?! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! Uh, er, a thrilling display of science at its best!" Taban announced.

Oh, _that's_ comforting. Wait, if this is it's first time working, and they tried it on my cat first...

Dammit, Lucca.

"That was awesome! I want to try it, too!" Marle yells excitedly.

"Behold, ladies and gentlemen, as this vision of loveliness steps aboard the machine! Let's give her a great big hand when she reappears!" Taban exclaims.

Marle steps on the platform, which, once again, appears to be operated by blunt force trauma, when something begins to go wrong. Whatever this machine does, apparently it's causing a reaction with the Chakra crystal in Marle's amulet, which… opens up a hole in space-time and sucks her in.

Shit.


End file.
